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"Please go away, George," complained Anne. "Mother and I have a great deal to talk about, and you are a dreadful nuisance when you discover a reason for coming home so long before dinner-time. Can't you pawn something?" "Don't be ridiculous," said George. "Why did you borrow money from Percy Wintermill?" demanded Mrs. Tresslyn. "There you go, mother, using that word 'borrow' again.
"What a wonderful thing it would be for Braden if he were to succeed," cried Anne, battling against her own sickening conviction. "Think what it would mean if he were to save the life of a man so important as James Marraville,—one of the most talked-of men in the country. It would—" "But he will not save the man's life," said Mrs. Wintermill significantly.
Wintermill, that Braden would consent to—But, why should I insult him by attempting to defend him when no defence is necessary? I know him well enough to say that he would not operate on James Marraville for all the money in the world unless he believed that there was a chance to pull him through." She spoke rapidly and rather too intensely for Mrs. Wintermill's peace of mind.
"Orchids are Percy's favourites, Anne. He never sends anything but orchids. He—" "He sent me some gorgeous orchids this morning," said Anne. Mrs. Wintermill looked again, even squinting her eyes. "I suppose they aren't very hardy at this time of the year. I've noticed they perish—" "Oh, these were exceedingly robust," interrupted Anne. "They'll live for days."
As I was saying, I said to Percy this morning: 'I must run in and see Jane Tresslyn to-day. And Percy said that he would meet me here and go on to the—Do you remember the Fenns? The Rumsey Fenns?" "Oh, yes. I've been away only a year, you know, Mrs. Wintermill." "It seems ages.
"For nearly three weeks I've been dodging him, and it can't go on much longer. One of these fine days, mother, a prominent member of the Wintermill family is going to receive a far from exclusive thrashing. That's the only way I can think of to stop him, if I can't raise the money to pay him up. Some day I'm going to refrain from dodging and he is going to run right square into this."
"That is just what Percy says," stammered the older woman hastily. "He believes in Braden. He says it's all tommyrot about Marraville paying him to put him out of his misery. My dear, I don't believe there is a more loyal creature on earth than Percy Wintermill. He—" Percy was announced at that instant.
Besides, I've always had a horror of the infectious diseases they may be carrying around in their—why, think of small-pox and diphtheria and scarlet fever! Those diseases—" "My dear Mrs. Wintermill," interrupted Anne, with a smile, "I am not thinking of marrying a doctor." "Of course you are not," said Mrs. Wintermill promptly. "I wasn't thinking of that.
"It did not go to Braden, Mrs. Wintermill," said Anne levelly. "It is in trust." Mrs. Wintermill smiled. "Oh, nothing will come of that," she said. "Percy says that you could bet your boots that Braden would have contested if things had been the other way round." "I'm sure I don't know," said Anne briefly.
I wish you wouldn't. It's a vulgar word. You might as well say, 'Why did you swipe money from Percy Wintermill? He lent it to me because he realised how darned hard-up we are and felt sorry for me, I suppose." "For heaven's sake, George, don't tell me that you—" "Don't look so horrified, mother," he interrupted. "I didn't tell him we were hard-up.
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